John Muir Writings

The Cruise of the Corwin

by John Muir

Chapter XIX
Turned Back by Storms and Ice

Steamer Corwin, Arctic Ocean,
between Herald Shoals and Point Hope,
September 3, 1881.

On the morning of August 27, having taken on board
a full supply of coal and water, and put the ship in as good condition
as possible, we left Plover Bay and turned once more toward Wrangell Land.

In passing Marcus Bay, a short distance up the coast from Plover Bay,
the Captain wished to make a landing to give some instructions to our Chukchi
interpreter and dog-driver, who lives here, concerning the dogs and sleds
that were left at Tapkan. The weather was too thick, however, to allow
this, and the ship was put on her course for the western Diomede Island,
where we arrived, against a stiff head wind and through thick fog, shortly
after noon on the twenty-eighth. We lay at anchor for a few hours, while
the wind from the Arctic came dashing and swirling over the island in squally
gusts.

In the meantime, while waiting to see whether the wind would moderate
before we proceeded through the strait, we went ashore and greatly enjoyed
a stroll through the streets and houses of the curious village here. It
is built on the bald, rugged side of the island, where the slope is almost
cliff-like in steepness and rockiness. The winter houses are wood-lined
burrows underground, entered by a tunnel, and warm and snug like the nest
of a fieldmouse beneath a sod, though terribly thick and rancid as to the
air contained in them. The summer houses are square skin boxes above ground,
and set on long stilt poles. Neither the one nor the other look in the
least like houses or huts of any sort. But those made of skin are the queerest
human nests conceivable. They are simply light, square frames made of drift
poles gathered on the beach, and covered with walrus hide that has been
carefully dressed and stretched tightly on the frame like the head of a
drum. The skin is of a yellow color, and quite translucent, so that when
in one feels as if one were inside a huge blown bladder, the light sifting
in through the skin at the top and all around, yellow as a sunset. The
entire establishment is window, one pane for the roof, which is also the
ceiling, and one for each of the four sides, without cross sash-bars to
mar the brave simplicity of it all.

Most of the inhabitants, of whom there are perhaps a hundred, had just
returned from a long voyage in their canoes to Cape Prince of Wales, Kotzebue
Sound, and other points on the American coast, for purposes of trade, bringing
back ivory and furs to sell to the Chukchis of Siberia, who in turn will
carry these articles by a roundabout way nearly a thousand miles to the
Russian trading post, and return with goods to trade back to the Diomede
merchants, through whose hands they will pass to the Cape Prince of Wales
natives, and from these to several others up the Inland River, down the
Colville, to Point Barrow and eastward as far as the mouth of the Mackenzie
River.

The Diomede merchants are true middlemen, and their village a half-way
house of commerce between northeastern Asia and America. The extent of
the dealings of these people, usually regarded as savages, is truly surprising.
And that they can keep warm and make a living on this bleak, fog-smothered,
storm-beaten rock, and have time to beget, feed, and train children, and
give them a good Eskimo education; that they teach them to shoot the bow,
to make and throw the bird spears, to make and use those marvelous kayaks,
to kill seals, bears, and walrus, to hunt the whale, capture the different
kinds of fishes, manufacture different sorts of leather, dress skins and
make them into clothing, besides teaching them to carry on trade, to make
fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together,
and to build the strange houses—that
they can do all this, and still have time to be sociable, to dance, sing,
gossip, and discuss ghosts, spirits, and all the nerve-racking marvels
of the shaman world, shows how truly wild, and brave, and capable a people
these island Eskimos are.

The wind having moderated, we got away from the box-and-burrow village
and through the Strait before dark; then we steered for the south end of
Wrangell Land, and after a speedy and uneventful voyage came in sight of
the highest of the coast mountains, on the thirtieth at noon. Thus far
we had not seen the ice, and, inasmuch as nineteen summer days had passed
over it since our last visit, we hoped that it might have been melted considerably
and broken up by the winds, so as to admit of a way being forced through
it at some point up to the land, or so near it that we might get ashore
by crossing over the coast ice, dragging our light skin boat after us in
case we should come to lanes of open water.

In this, however, we were disappointed; for when three and a half hours
later we came up to the edge of the pack it was found to all appearances
unchanged. It still extended about twenty miles offshore; it trended as
far as we could see in the same direction as was observed before, and it
seemed as heavy and unbroken as ever, offering no encouragement for efforts
in this direction. We therefore sailed along the edge of the pack to the
eastward to see what might be accomplished towards our first landing place.
We gazed at the long stretch of wilderness which spread invitingly before
us, and which we were so eager to explore—the rounded, glaciated bosses
and foothills, the mountains, with their ice-sculptured features of hollows
and ridges and long withdrawing valleys, which in former visits we had
sketched, and scanned so attentively through field-glasses, and which now
began to wear a familiar look. The sky was overcast, the land seemed almost
black in the gloomy light, and a heavy swell began to be felt coming in
from the northeast. Towards night, when we were not far from our old landing
near the easternmost extremity of the land, the Corwin was hove to, waiting
for the morning before attempting to seek a way in. But the next day, August
31, was stormy. The wind from the northeast blew hard inshore, therefore
it was not considered safe to approach too near.

At eight o’clock we were in sight of the ice opposite the northeast
cape, and it seemed to be farther off the land than at our first visit,
and no opening appeared, though the weather was so dim and rough that nothing
could be definitely determined. Generally, however, the ice was now drifting
against the east side of Wrangell Land, and coming southward to so great
an extent that our chances of effecting another landing began to be less
promising.

When we were within twenty miles of Herald Island we hove to, waiting
better weather before entering narrow lanes and bays in the pack when so
heavy a sea was running. The sky was dismal all the afternoon—toward night,
dull, lurid purple—and the wind was blowing a gale. The ice-breaker, made
of heavy boiler iron, was broken by the pounding of the waves, and had
to be cut away, which is unfortunate at this particular time.

September 1 was a howling storm-day, through which we lay to,
swashing and rolling wildly among white waves, and drifting southeastward
twenty or thirty miles a day. The next day there was no abatement in the
force of the gale up to two o’clock in the afternoon. A heavy sea, streaked
with foam, was running parallel to the direction of the wind, while the
air was filled with snow, adding to the wintry aspect of the day. While
we were still holding on, hoping the storm would subside from hour to hour,
one of the rudder chains parted.

This made Captain Hooper decide that in view of the condition of the
ship, and the ice, and the weather, the risk attending further efforts
this year to search the shores of Wrangell Land should not be incurred,
more especially since the position and drift of the ice held out but little
promise of allowing another landing to be made, or of a sufficiently near
approach to enable us to add appreciably to the knowledge already acquired.
Accordingly, after the rudder was mended as securely as possible, the good
Corwin, excused from further ice duty, was turned away from the war and
headed for the American coast at Point Hope.

Had the ship been in good condition, the baffle would probably have
been waged a few more weeks along the edge of the ice barrier, watching
the appearance of any vulnerable point of attack, whatever the result might
have been. Now it seems we are homeward bound. We intend to stop at Kotzebue
Sound, St. Michael, St. Paul, and Unalaska to make necessary repairs, take
on coal, etc., and we may reach San Francisco by the middle of October.

We have not met the Rodgers. We learned from the natives at Plover Bay
that she had called there and left seven days before our arrival. That
was August 17. We suppose she went to St. Michael from there to coal and
take on provisions, which would probably require a week. If so, we may
have passed the Strait ahead of her. But in case she had already been at
St. Michael, then, in following out her instructions, she could trace the
Siberian coast for some distance, making inquiries among the Chukchis,
where she may possibly be at present. Or, if this part of the work of the
expedition had been completed before the coming on of the gate, she may
be sheltering about Herald Island or some point on the coast of Wrangell
Land. [Mr. Muir’s supposition proved to be correct. The U.
S. S. Rodgers, Lieutenant R. M. Berry commanding, reached Wrangell Land,
August 25, and found shelter the next day in a snug little harbor on the
southeastern coast of the island. There the Rodgers remained until September
13, while two search parties explored the shores of the island for traces
of the Jeannette expedition.]